Dust 514 developer CCP Games has announced it will shift to a more regular, near-monthly update cycle for its PlayStation 3-exclusive EVE Online spin-off.

The game's recent Uprising 1.1 version added a string of improvements to the release build, yet version 1.2 is not far behind, CCP said in a new blog post.

"We listen to your feedback, as well as to feedback from the media. As a result, we have decided to move into a faster, more iterative update cycle. We will be pushing out point releases (Update 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.) on a near-monthly basis," Dust 514 creative director Atli Mar wrote.

Update #2: Eve Online players have been compensated with 50,000 free, unallocated skill points to do what they will with. That gift is only for people with fully active Eve accounts. Trial users will get an extra seven days free play time.

What does free-to-play online PS3 shooter Dust 514 do about PlayStation 4? The game lives on the PlayStation Network and connects to the nearly 10-year-old universe of Eve Online. Dust 514 isn't even out yet: it's in open beta. It can't have been built to simply end when PS4 takes over, can it?

The Dust 514 open beta begins on 22nd January 2013, CCP Games has announced.

All will be able to download the PlayStation 3-exclusive first-person shooter and play for free from that day. The news comes a few days after CCP merged Dust 514 with its PC space opera MMO Eve Online on the Tranquility server hosting the Eve universe.

"The launch of the Dust 514 Open Beta is another step towards our long-term vision for CCP and Eve," said CCP boss Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.

Dust 514, the free PS3 online shooter, will share the same universe (server cluster) as spaceship MMO Eve Online. And the two games will interact. That's been the big selling point of Dust 514 since it was announced.

CCP's global CEO, Hilmar Pétursson, has used the CCP Presents session of the company's Fanfest convention in Reykjavik, Iceland, to showcase an audacious video outlining the developer's vision for the future of EVE Online.

CCP has revealed that DUST 514 - the strategic FPS for consoles that will link with the sci-fi MMO EVE Online - will not require a subscription to play, but will charge real money for in-game items at a "virtual items marketplace".

Although details were sparse on last week's announcement of the EVE Online console FPS spin-off, Dust 514, there's been a trickle of information since that does a little to clarify how CCP's two MMOs will interact.

The best summaries are to be found in a video interview with CCP head Hilmar Petursson by German site Gamona, and Massively's article on what we know and speculation on what it might mean.

Petursson explained that Dust 514 will be an online shooter, for consoles only, with elements of real-time strategy - deployment of installations by commanders throughout Dust 514's battlefields will change the flow of the fight - and persistent MMO character advancement. Player characters in Dust 514 will be able to own things, including customisable vehicles and weapons.